Re: handouts at GWA talks

**J* L* <h*@yahoo.com>**

Thanks, Lois, for your calm, reasonable response. Having been active in GWA since 1977 (!!), I know only too well how people gripe to and about HQ. But if Bob is the one who decided that (and here I'm quoting from the application form for speakers at the 2012 symposium)  "Handouts are a valuable reference for most presentations, and session handouts will be posted 'online only' in order to support the GWA sustainability policy," I'll mention my reservations to him. 

I see both sides of this issue, but if many attendees count on printouts for one reason or another, handouts are not going to be sustainable no matter who prints them out -- GWA, the speaker, or members, so putting them online either means that GWA passes the sustainability question on to others (a cop-out), or handouts don't get used as people are used to using them. (Maybe we'll come up with a better way, but, as Nancy says, we're not there yet.) If people don't use them, that's a loss to speakers.

I don't want to belittle the idea of sustainability, which is important to all of us on the planet, but I'm not sure implementing this idea was balanced against the advantages of having paper handouts for people paying a fair amount of money to attend a symposium.

I think (I hope) I'm not just being a curmudgeon about this. I had one of the first IBM PCs made and ordered an iPhone the minute Apple made them available. I was one of the original members of the CompuServe garden writers forum back before there was a public Internet. I'm all in favor of the Q&T, the Directory, and communication from GWA being electronic. (I'm sure that saves us a lot of money, as well as being handy and susainable.) And if this "policy" of online-only handouts by speakers is upheld by the Board, I won't continue to gripe. But I'd love for the advantages (for sustainability) and disadvantages (to the members) to be discussed and weighed.

Best,
Judy Lowe

________________________________

Message: 5
Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2012 10:47:24 -0500
From: loisdan@juno.com
Subject: Re: [GWL] No handouts at GWA talks?
To: hardbackwryter@yahoo.com,gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <20120101.104724.3352.0.loisdan@juno.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Dear Judy,

To clarify, the subject of the symposium handouts has never been
discussed by the Sustainability Task Force, nor does the STF establish
policies, which originate at a higher level. I think your comments would
best be directed to Bob Lagasse and the National Board. Unfortunately
Headquarters is in a no-win situation, criticized by some for not being
sensitive enough to sustainability issues and by others for being "too
sustainable." 

It may be of value to try to measure how the discontinuance of of paper
handouts, Q&T, the Directory, etc. has impacted the membership, but I
suspect we'll also run into cost issues. 

Personally, and not speaking for the STF, I share your frustration and
feel that sometimes paper is better. 

Regards,
Lois J. de Vries, Chair
GWA Sustainability Task Force
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